Chapter 38.—That the
Ecclesiastical Canon Has Not Admitted Certain Writings on Account
of Their Too Great Antiquity, Lest Through Them False Things Should
Be Inserted Instead of True.

If I may recall far more ancient
times, our patriarch Noah was certainly even before that great
deluge, and I might not undeservedly call him a prophet, forasmuch
as the ark he made, in which he escaped with his family, was itself
a prophecy of our times.12131213Heb. xi. 7; 1 Pet. iii.
20, 21. What of Enoch, the seventh from
Adam? Does not the canonical epistle of the Apostle Jude declare
that he prophesied?12141214Jude 14. But the writings of these men
could not be held as authoritative either among the Jews or us, on
account of their too great antiquity, which made it seem needful to
regard them with suspicion, lest false things should be set forth
instead of true. For some writings which are said be theirs are
quoted by those who, according to their own humor, loosely believe
what they please. But the purity of the canon has not admitted
these writings, not because the authority of these men who pleased
God is rejected, but because they are not believed to be theirs.
Nor ought it to appear strange if writings for which so great
antiquity is claimed are held in suspicion, seeing that in the very
history of the kings of Judah and Israel containing their acts,
which we believe to belong to the canonical Scripture, very many
things are mentioned which are not explained there, but are said to
be found in other books which the prophets wrote, the very names of
these prophets being sometimes given, and yet they are not found in
the canon which the people of God received. Now I confess the
reason of this is hidden from me; only I think that even those men,
to whom certainly the Holy Spirit revealed those things which ought
to be held as of religious authority, might write some things as
men by historical diligence, and others as prophets by divine
inspiration; and these things were so distinct, that it was judged
that the former should be ascribed to themselves, but the latter to
God speaking through them: and so the one pertained to the
abundance of knowledge, the other to the authority of religion.
In that authority the canon is guarded. So that, if any writings
outside of it are now brought forward under the name of the ancient
prophets, they cannot serve even as an aid to knowledge, because it
is uncertain whether they are genuine; and on this account they are
not trusted, especially those of them in which some things are
found that are even contrary to the truth of the canonical books,
so that it is quite apparent they do not belong to
them.